


A Mimic

by sbuggbot



Category: SteamWorld Quest (Video Game)
Genre: Don't copy to another site, Found Family, Gen, Suspense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 01:01:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21244931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sbuggbot/pseuds/sbuggbot
Summary: Mimics are uncommon in Alsydhia but they *do* exist. It takes a careful eye to spot one.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Uhh, IDK how this happened other than I was thinking about Team Dad Orik again and how he probably would have to repeatedly assure Tarah and Thayne that he wouldn't hurt them. Even then the twins probably have trust issues and it's an uphill battle (but one that's worth fighting in Orik's eyes). Sometimes it might feel like it isn't sticking, though...but they definitely notice.

Thayne walked a bit behind the other three, with Orik and his sister. Tarah on Orik's left with him holding her hand, and Thayne on his right where he had access to Orik's loose sleeve. He'd developed a habit of feeling the silk on Orik's robe to keep himself grounded and to calm down.

Thayne picked up the loose sleeve and brushed it against his cheek. He paused. This was not silk. He couldn't identify the material, but despite looking like silk it absolutely did not feel like silk. It couldn't be that Orik was wearing a strange robe; he was very particular about what he wore. Not to mention the fact that this robe looked exactly like the one he liked to wear often...why would he have a duplicate made out of a completely different material? The difference would drive the man crazy.

That set the gears turning in Thayne's head; he had been extremely aware of other people's behaviors and patterns for...a long time. It was something he learned as a defense mechanism. So he could tell when someone was in a bad mood and prone to lashing out--that way he and Tarah could steer clear. Now that Thayne was actively thinking about it again, Orik _ had _ been acting strangely since he had reunited with the group earlier. Not in any way that was tangible enough for Thayne to point out, but something didn't feel right--besides the robe.

Thayne leaned a bit forward so he could see his sister and made a soft chittering noise with his teeth to get her attention (and her attention only). She looked over at him, a bit confused that he was using their secret code right now. They hadn't needed to in a while. _ What? _

Thayne tilted his head toward Orik and made a different noise. _ Orik. Pattern's off. _ It took Tarah a moment to process what he said, so Thayne repeated himself for good measure.

Tarah glanced back at Orik...he _ was _ acting strangely this afternoon. _ Shoot, yeah. Better watch. _ The twins nodded at each other and acted as if nothing had happened. Almost. Both of them were subtly watching Orik to see if anything more concrete and odd happened.

* * *

Something was definitely wrong…….

"Alright, how would _ you _get inside?" Armilly asked. 

"Well, we'd sneak in through the window, obviously," Tarah replied. It wasn't like she didn't ever have to do so before.

"Try doing that and you'll get whipped," Orik said.

Everyone froze and looked back at him. Tarah stared at him in horror for a moment, then wrenched her arm out of his grip. "You're not my dad," she said, her voice cold as ice.

"Wha-" Galleo began.

"T-technically I'm not, b--"

"Not what I meant." 

Thayne had already backed away but refused to take his eyes off him. "You're **not ** Orik, he'd _ never _ say something like that." The not-Orik opened his mouth to object, but. Thayne cut him off. "Never. Not even as a joke."

The not-Orik tried looking to the others for help, but it was too late; everyone else was onto him now. All eyes were on him.

"You're right, Orik's always been adamant about not hitting either of you," Copernica said. 

"He'd get angry if someone even implied he'd do such a thing," Galleo added.

The not-Orik, realizing now that everyone definitely knew it was a mimic and not Orik, turned to run. What else could it do?

The party was not going to let it, obviously; they had to find where the real Orik was.

Armilly roared and lunged at the thing, pinning it to the ground with her sword. "Stop wearing Orik's face!" She screamed at it. 

The mimic complied and changed back into its true form but still held an air of smugness. 

She held her sword to its throat. "Where is he?!"

"Or what? You'll kill me, the only one who knows where he is?"

Armilly glared at the mimic hard enough to burn a hole through its head. She felt something tap her thigh. "What, Thayne?" He shook his head at her and nudged her over. "You wanna try?" She asked, confused.

Thayne climbed onto the mimic and held his dagger to it. It was like someone flipped a switch; he was as cold and unforgiving as a seaside cliff, shaped and pounded again and again by the waves.

"Tell us where he is," Thayne hissed through his teeth.

The mimic laughed. "You're gonna kill me either way, I can tell. Why should I cooperate with you, kid?"

Thayne held his dagger to the mimic's shoulder. "Tell us where Orik is and I _ might _ make your death quick." He began pressing at a gap in its plating. 

Infuriatingly, the mimic remained smug and tight-lipped. This kid was kind of endearing, no wonder Orik was so fond of him...

...the feeling of endearment disappeared when Thayne jammed his dagger into its shoulder with a growl, wiggling it a bit to help it go in farther. Not a fatal injury, but Thayne wasn't looking to kill yet. Not without what he wanted. "I'll ask again, where is he?"

Clearly nervous now, the mimic still held fast, grimacing when Thayne twisted the dagger in the wound it had made. Purple wisps came off of Thayne's body and his dagger began to glow faintly purple. Not even Tarah had ever seen him so focused and angry. "Talk, or I'll twist it some more."

Armilly, shocked but not stunned into inactivity like either of her friends, tried to step in and intervene. "Thayne--"

Tarah barricaded her with her axe. "Stay back, you don't want to get in the middle of this."

Thayne was too focused on his task to notice, shaking with rage but still carefully keeping himself under control. His pupils had turned from yellow to white to now a faint purple from channeling and focusing so much Arcane energy. The wisps around Thayne and the glow around his dagger became even brighter as he tensed his entire body up. He didn't even need to move the dagger; the hurt and fear and pain he'd felt through the years and was now channeling through it and into the mimic's shoulder was doing the work now.

The mimic screamed. Thayne stopped channeling but kept his dagger in place.

"A-alright! He's at the forest house, the one that used to have rangers before the whole Guild folded!" Then the mimic braced itself for a killing blow.

The killing blow did not come. Instead, Thayne removed his dagger, wiped it off, and got off of the mimic. "Get up."

"You're not going to kill me?" The mimic was very confused.

"Not yet, we've got to make sure you aren't lying to us," Tarah said. "Kiinda hard to trust you right now."

"We gotta find that house now," Thayne mumbled. "I think we've been there before but that was ages ago…"

"I know the way!" Armilly chimed in. "Sometimes I'd drop off applications to that chapter of the Guild when the one back home wouldn't take mine." She didn't have any luck though; one had to live near the Guild chapter they were applying to. "Let's go, Orik needs our help!"

"You heard her, move it, buddy," Tarah said to the mimic. It tried resisting, but Thayne was rather convincing with his dagger in his hand and a stern look on his face.

Copernica blinked. "....holy scrap?" she mumbled to herself.

"Remind me to never piss off Thayne," Galleo said.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mmmmm so let's go see if Orik's okay, now.
> 
> Also Happy Halloween I did not plan for this fic to happen at all but I'll take it!

Orik hated mimics.

He hadn't heard of any incidents involving mimics in years, but of course they had to still exist. He had just let the fact they exist and cause trouble slip into the back of his mind and into one of the many forgotten crevices that form when you've been around for years. They always seemed to show up when you weren't thinking about them. Whether it was an actual fact or superstition, Orik did not know and did not care at the moment.

But he'd fallen for a mimic's ruse and now he was stuck here while the cursed thing was undoubtedly running about and pretending to be him. He would have pursued, except he couldn't move anywhere on account of his wrists and ankles all being tied together. It forced him into a rather uncomfortable hunched position. He couldn't get loose--he had already tried and ended up with his weak arm spasming for his efforts.

Being restrained in a cold, damp room did not play well with aged mechanical joints. Orik was convinced that this particular room had been enchanted in such a way it would always be dank and cold; it certainly hadn't been this way when this ranger house was still used. As if being physically restrained wasn't enough to make his joints stiff…

Any mimic that managed to get by for this long obviously knew how to properly stow away its victims so they wouldn't make a reappearance, Orik decided. At least it hadn't severely injured him in order to keep him hidden.

He heard footsteps outside, a good number of them. Orik tensed. He was in no position to defend himself. Then he placed the sounds of Armilly shouting and generally existing and relaxed. 

"Here it is!" Armilly said. "...Man, this place really fell apart."

More discussion Orik couldn't make out because the others didn't speak nearly as loud as Armilly did most of the time. He shouted in hopes that the party would hear him. (And in the hope that it actually was the party and not a band of more blasted mimics coming to torment him.)

Armilly literally kicked the door down with a BANG. Based on the surprised way she stared at it, she didn't actually mean to knock the door off its hinges. She looked up. "Orik!"

"Did you have to break the door," Galleo muttered as he stepped in. He was closely followed by Copernica and the twins, although not everybody could fit through the door at once. 

"Hello, Armilly," Orik said with a tired smile. "And before you say anything, Galleo, this is not fun or pleasant for me in the slightest."

"Hah"

Thayne kept glancing back outside, giving whatever was out there an intensely stern look but softening once he looked back inside. Both him and his sister were on edge.

Armilly wasn't, though--she strode right over and was about to undo the knots when Tarah stopped her.

"But is this the real Orik?" Tarah asked warily. "Last thing we need is another mimic running around."

"I'll say that I am Orik, although I'm aware a mimic would make the same claim."

"Since we know for sure that there's been a mimic problem, we don't have to do any cross-examining." Copernica fixed her glasses and opened her book. "If this isn't Orik, we'll see who it is in a moment." She didn't pause for even a second before casting a spell directly at Orik. It had no effect anyone could tell.

"It...did nothing?" 

"There wasn't a disguise to dispel," Copernica said as she closed her book with a satisfied air about her. "This isn't a mimic, shapeshifter, or someone using an illusion spell. It's definitely Orik."

Having been given the go-ahead, Armilly began untying Orik. She had little luck undoing the knots, though. "Ugh, Copernica, can you use a spell to burn these off?"

She shook her head. "Not without accidentally setting Orik on fire, too." 

"I'd prefer to not be on fire," Orik said. A second later, "Armilly, _ please _don't use your sword!"

"But I gotta cut these ropes loose!"

Tarah said nothing, but pulled out a pocket knife and held it out to Armilly. Much easier to manage in a tight space than a broadsword. Thayne was just walking back inside. Nobody had even noticed he had slipped out for a minute...

"That would work too," Armilly admitted, taking the pocket knife and carefully cutting Orik free. He immediately straightened his legs with the type of relieved sigh one makes involuntarily the moment they're no longer in pain. Then Tarah and Thayne were hugging him tight. He fell back against the wall from getting tackled.

"Are you hurt? That thing didn't hurt you, did it?" Thayne asked.

"No, it just tied me up and stowed me away in a spot where I wouldn't get in its way," he said. "Give me a while…"

"Dude, what happened to you?" Galleo asked.

"I was outside rather early this morning, I woke up at a strange hour again… I ran into what I thought was a coglin despite not being in coglin territory. Then it started using attacks no coglin would ever know and caught me off guard. It was too late for me to do anything once I realized I was dealing with a mimic.

"It took me here and then assumed my appearance. I'm guessing you're familiar with the rest of the story."

"Why would it _ do _ that?" Armilly asked, baffled.

"Why not?" Orik shrugged. "Mimics like posing as someone to create a scene. Partly mischief, then when it gets bored of its charade..." he grimaced. Everyone knew what happened then and he did not want to finish that thought out loud. "I'm relieved that you realized what had happened so quickly, especially since these incidents rarely occur nowadays."

"I think the twins realized what was going on before anyone else, they've always been so perceptive."

"They have," Orik agreed. If only they hadn't been forced into a situation that required them to be that way to simply live, he thought. "Once you notice one wrong thing with a mimic's disguise, everything else falls apart quickly. They depend on people not questioning the little things."

"It threatened to spank Tarah, that's not a 'little thing'."

There was a moment where Orik was too flabbergasted and angry to speak. That wasn't even a remotely okay thing for it to say! "Mimics make bigger slip ups periodically, too, especially when they're comfortable to the point of carelessness."

"Yeah, I knew you'd never say that," Tarah said. Thayne nodded in agreement.

A casual comment like that may not mean much on the surface, but it showed that the twins truly did trust Orik and knew he wouldn't hurt them, even if he was angry or if they did something wrong. The message was not lost on Orik. He had been working on building trust with them for a while and sometimes doubted if such a feat was even possible. Now he knew the heartache involved at times was absolutely worth it. Unable to find the words, Orik just hugged them both.

"Wait...that mimic might be running loose still!" he cried, sitting up properly. "People don't learn how to spot a mimic these days."

"It's fine, Dad." Thayne patted Orik. "I dealt with it earlier, it won't bother anyone ever again." Thayne had this look in his eye that simultaneously told Orik what he meant by that and reaffirmed the fact that despite his usually timid demeanor, he was still Tarah's twin brother.

"Well, if everyone's here and accounted for and there aren't any duplicates lingering--"

Thayne shook his head. He had made sure.

"--we can head back home. Galleo's had enough, I can tell."

He shot Copernica a look. She wasn't wrong, though. Then both of them looked at Armilly in anticipation of an objection from her not wanting to end the adventure yet.

She shrugged. "We rescued Orik! And didn't uncover a bigger plot this time in the process either."

"Galleo, would you help me up?" In response to the outstretched hand, Orik elaborated, "No, I mean you need to pick me up and put me on my feet, I can't pull myself up at the moment."

"But you think you can still walk?" Galleo didn't quite understand how that worked, but then again he wasn't Orik.

"Yes, and walking will help, I know from experience. This is similar to the times I'm moving slower in the morning, you've seen that before." His joints would stop sticking as much when he moved them for a while.

"Alright." Galleo picked Orik up under the arms and raised him to his feet, waiting for Orik to get his footing properly before letting go. Several of his joints audibly popped as he was moved.

"Crunchy," Armilly said.

"Yes, very," Orik said as he resituated his weaker arm. "Thank you, Galleo."

Time to _ leave _ this place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I misspelled the word "mimicry" in the Google Doc I composed this story in while I was naming it so it's known as "mimic**try**".

**Author's Note:**

> Do not get on Thayne's bad side; you **will** regret it.


End file.
